The Administrative Core provides the coherent administrative leadership and organization of the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research (MCUAAAR). The persistence of health disparities requires that each RCMAR have the leadership and maturity to enact integrated approaches that result in deep, ongoing, creative partnerships between university faculty aging researchers and community members. Our unique partnership between two major research universities, one an African American serving institution, positions us to accomplish what only successful, mature centers can. This Administrative Core will coordinate: (1) the activities of the methods and measurement functions of the Center; (2) the investigator development work in the Investigator Core; (3) the community outreach and respondent recruitment activities of the Community Liaison Core; and, (4) the integration of these cores in both training new investigators and providing research translation to the community. The direction for the Administrative Core will come from the leadership of Drs. James S. Jackson (University of Michigan) and Peter Lichtenberg (Wayne State , University), the co-directors of the overall Center, and administrative support within the Administrative Core. The specific aims of the Administrative Core are to: 1) extend the overarching administrative structure and ensure that the MCUAAAR Center components interact in a synergistic fashion; 2) coordinate the short and long term mentoring, retention and follow-up of a set of 15 minority junior scholars whose research focus on the social and behavioral aspects of physical and mental health and health disparities; and, 3) use scientific knowledge about the recruitment and retention of minority elders in health and clinical research and the recruitment and retention of minority investigators.